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Boeing’s first crewed test flight to the International Space Station will be longer than originally planned to complete additional microgravity research, maintenance, and other activities while the Starliner craft is docked to station, NASA announced today.

NASA and Boeing have agreed to extend the duration of the flight test after completing an in-depth technical assessment of the CST-100 Starliner systems. They are now targeting the crew flight test, with astronauts on board, to late 2019, after delaying the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test to August.

“NASA’s assessment of extending the mission was found to be technically achievable without compromising the safety of the crew,” said Phil McAlister, director of the commercial spaceflight division at NASA Headquarters. “Commercial crew flight tests, along with the additional Soyuz opportunities, help us transition with greater flexibility to our next-generation commercial systems under the Commercial Crew Program.”

Boeing also will fly a Pad Abort Test, which will demonstrate the abort engines can push the spacecraft about a mile up and a mile out from the test site, before those two orbital flights to demonstrate the company’s ability to safely carry astronauts away from a launch vehicle emergency, if necessary, NASA said.

“The uncrewed flight tests provide a wealth of data for us to analyze every phase of flight,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program deputy manager. “They offer a phenomenal opportunity for us to evaluate the end-to-end performance of the systems, and really set us up for flight tests with crew. Our Boeing and NASA teams are making tremendous progress without compromising safety as we prepare for launch.”

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is designed to be reusable up to 10 times, is nearly complete, according to NASA. “The Starliner team is working to complete all of the critical testing and integration on the spacecraft to ensure the shortest possible time between the completion of the uncrewed flight and the first launch of crew, and then to operational missions to station.”

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke and Boeing’s Chris Ferguson are continuing preparations for the Crew Flight Test at Johnson Space Center in Houston. They are training on Starliner’s and the space station’s systems, and are now focusing on becoming a longer duration crew.

Mann and Fincke are training for upcoming spacewalks, and Ferguson is training to support them from inside the station.